The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exempted part of the Madison Aquifer from the Clean Water Act late last week. The agency also approved permits to allow the injection of thousands of gallons of wastewater below ground through old oil and gas wells near the towns of Valier and Lake Francis.
The EPA’s decision came as a surprise to locals who have been asking the agency to consider the environmental harms. Local farmers, ranchers, and governments like the Pondera County Commissioners all opposed the project.
Zane Drishinski is one of the commissioners.
"We feel it's a terrible, terrible decision for lots of different reasons," Drishinski says. "Water is a premium in Montana, that's only become more so. And to think that we can just contaminate a whole aquifer like that and not have dire consequences down the road is pretty short sighted."
The wastewater is a byproduct of biofuel made by Montana Renewables, a subsidiary of the Calumet refinery in Great Falls. Drishinski and his fellow commissioners, along with the county sanitarian, repeatedly asked for samples of the wastewater and were denied.
At a public EPA hearing last fall, the only voice in support of the project came from the owner of the company seeking the permits. Drishinski says he hasn’t met anyone who supports it in his community.
"It's been disappointing that our state leaders haven't really reached out to us once at all to see what our concerns were," he says.
The commissioners plan to appeal the decision. Anyone who gave public comments on the permit application can submit an appeal of the EPA’s decision by the end of May.
